11.20.2010

On the day after the release of Deathly Hallows Part 1, I would like to discuss the previous installments. I did something similar right before Half-Blood Prince came out, where I gave my Top 10 Worst Things About Harry Potter Films 1-5. Like before, this post will largely be comparitive to the books, and I'll just be talking about the ones already out on DVD (i.e. the first six). Also, a couple things from that list might overlap with this post, but I'll try to keep it mostly new.

I was originally going to make a Top 10 Characters Cut From The Harry Potter Films, and then a list of way they could have made the films better, but I felt this particular post would get more accomplished, including everything I would have said on those list. We all know, especially the book readers, that these aren't all perfect adaptations, nor are they perfect movies. Certain things could have been done differently in the films to improve them. This post is going to chronicle the biggest differences between the books and the films and what could have possibly made the films better. So here we go...

YEAR 1: HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE

Chris Columbus had a lot on his hands when he set up this series. He had to find kids that might be good actors both now and later and that would grow into their roles. He had to make everything seem magical and wonderful. He had to keep in all the important stuff that would set things up for later. And, most importantly, he had to make a good adaptation. Did he succeed? For what he was given, I think so.

CONTINUITY

-There are no series continuity errors since this is the first film.

NOTABLE EXCLUDED CHARACTERS

-Peeves the Poltergiest. Peeves was actually casted and filmed, but all his scenes were never finished in post, because they decided to cut him out of the movie. It's a real shame, too, considering they could have really used him later. Even if they just had him in one or two short scenes (i.e. Kreacher in Order of the Phoenix), they could have always brought him back. But no, we didn't even have that luxury.

-Bane and Ronan. These are centaurs that get angry with Firenze late in the movie. They become slightly more prominent in the later books, at least in the background (specifically Order of the Phoenix).

-Professor Binns. He's the ghost professor for History of Magic. He's not really an important character, but some interesting scenes have happened in his classes later in the series. Oh, and their textbook is written by Bathilda Bagshot, who is incredibly important come the seventh book.

-Narcissa Malfoy. That's right, Narcissa (Malfoy's mother) was actually first introduced in this book, whereas the movies would have you to believe you never met her until the sixth. She doesn't do a heck of a lot, though, so it's understandable why they cut her.

-Madam Pince. She's the mean librarian. None of the movies have shown her (I believe), though the library has been used throughout the films. Again, not a major character, but a fun one.

PLOT

-I don't think I can make any complaints plot-wise. It did everything the first book needed to do. It didn't leave out anything major that I can think of. The only thing I might mention is the lack of a few "levels" when the trio is going after the stone at the end. There's are at least 2-3 missing protection rooms, but it's understandable why they were removed.

SETTING UP FOR LATER

-Again, the only real thing that wasn't set up that I would have liked to see set up was Peeves.

MISC.

-Chris Columbus' biggest problem with his Potter films is his visual style. Everything is primary colors... green, red, and gold being the biggest. It's so bland and boring to look at, especially in comparison to the later films. And when you do a near page-for-page adaptation of a book, but you don't give us an appealing visual style, you're not gonna have a lot of repeat viewings.

The second film is considered by many to be the worst, especially considering the drop in ticket sales for the third (the third film is the least selling Potter film of the series). I don't consider it the worst. Yes, it's long... and yes, there could have been things done better. So let's see what those things are...

CONTINUITY

-As Chris Columbus continued with this movie, there aren't any major continuity issues yet.

NOTABLE EXCLUDED CHARACTERS

-Pretty much every new character was introduced... Lucius Malfoy, Dobby, Cornelius Fudge, Fawkes the Phoenix, Ginny (though she was introduced in the first), Arthur Weasley, etc.

PLOT

-There actually is a plot hole issue in the movie. There's a big subplot that ends up tying in to the main plot, but it's barely even glanced over. This subplot is Ginny having a huge crush on Harry. After Lucius slips the diary into her cauldron, Ginny begins writing to Tom Riddle about Harry. She explains everything about him. As this was just a memory of a young Tom Riddle, he didn't know about Harry Potter or what had happened between them. Ginny tells him all of this. Because of this, Tom becomes very interested in Harry, so that when Harry ends up with the diary, Tom messes with him and eventually tries to get him down into the Chamber of Secrets so that he can come back to life (this gets into Horcruxes, which isn't explained until the sixth). But none of this is explained, so there's a plot hole of how exactly Tom knew about Harry in the first place.

SETTING UP FOR LATER

-Everything is pretty much set up nicely in this one... from the Polyjuice Potion to Dobby to the diary... and everything in between. I don't think there's anything that was left out of this movie that would mess with later installments.

MISC.

-The ending is way too schmaltzy and cheesy. There is no way every single house would know or even care that Hagrid came back from Azkaban, much less all cheer for him and whatnot.

-The movie is incredibly long (the longest to date), but I honestly can't think of what could be cut out. The Quidditch match could be shortened, and the stuff at the beginning with the flying car and all that could have been shortened. Even the spiders/Aragog sequence could have been cut down just a tad. I don't think any scene could have really been removed, but maybe just shortened. There were quite a few scenes that just went on a little long.

I rag on this movie a lot. Y'all know it. Most of y'all disagree with it. I treat it as if it were the worst film in the series. But, believe it or not, I don't actually think that. I think it made the biggest and most grievous errors in its translation to the screen, but I don't think it's the worst actual film. Let me start off with the good, however.

Alfonso Cauron gave the series a much-needed overhaul visually. Chris Columbus was just boring stylistically. He also made it much darker, though to be fair to Rowling, the series did start taking a darker turn around this book (though didn't do a full flip until the end of Goblet of Fire). So in those regards, he did fantastically.

That being said, let us start with our first category:

CONTINUITY

-Cauron moved the Whomping Willow from its location in Chamber of Secrets.

-He changed the grounds of Hogwarts (though I actually like this change).

-He moved Hagrid's hut a considerable distance.

-He changed the actors playing both the Fat Lady and Tom the Barkeep. Granted, he also changed Dumbledore, but that wasn't really his fault considering Richard Harris died. What is his fault, however, will be discussed a little later (you already know).

-Along with changing the Fat Lady actress, he moved her portrait and, thus, the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. It makes no sense to put it in the middle of a staircase. Put it back where it belongs.

-OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO FLITWICK?! Besides the obvious complete makeover, he's been turned from the Charms professor to the choir teacher. Right.

NOTABLE EXCLUDED CHARACTERS

-Sir Cadogan. He was a knight in a painting that bugged the trio throughout. He's actually in the movie, so he's not completely excluded. You can see him in the background during the Fat Lady scene. But any scene of worth that he should be in was filmed, but inevitably left on the cutting room floor. Overall not an important character, but would have been nice to see.

-Oliver Wood. He was in the previous two films as the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. But really, Prisoner of Azkaban is his shining moment. This was his last chance to win the Cup, and he has a pretty decent-sized role in the book. But they cut out all the Cup stuff in the movie. I wasn't too perturbed by it, though. It just would have been nice to see him again in his big moment.

-Cho Chang. She's actually introduced in this book, but it's within the Quidditch subplot that was cut.We start seeing Harry's crush on her here.

PLOT

-This is where the movie loses me. The movie removed the entire purpose for this story existing. The first, of course, belonging to the removal of the Marauder's Map explanation. Lupin could have easily explained it before he left. But not explaining it leaves a few plot holes in the film, not to mention leakes over into future continuity errors.

-The second is one of the reasons Snape hates Harry: James saved Snape's life after a prank goes horribly wrong. It's also one of the first times you see James as a little less than perfect.

-How exactly did Sirius escape Azkaban, again? Oh, right, he noticed Scabbers/Peter Pettigrew in the Egypt picture that is tossed in at the beginning of the movie for no apparent reason. He knew he was at Hogwarts because the article discussed Ron being a Hogwarts student. Then he changed into a dog, which the dementors couldn't sense, and was able to sneak away and hop into the surrounding water and swim to shore.

-But Nick, you ask, why don't all of the prisoners just turn into animals and escape? Well, reader, it's because Animagi are rare, and not everybody can do it... another bit of plot information not shared.

-And if Peter did the killing and betrayal, why, exactly, did everybody (including his closest friends) think Sirius did it? Well... that's explained in the next section.

SETTING UP FOR LATER

-Fidelius Charm. There's a spell known as the Fidelius Charm, or the Secret Keeper spell. Basically what it does is hides a certain location from anybody being able to find it. Only one person can divulge its whereabouts. This person is known as a Secret Keeper. When Voldemort started to go after Lily and James, Dumbledore hid them at Godric's Hollow. The Fidelius Charm was put on their house. They were originally going to go with Sirius as the Secret Keeper, as he was James' best friend. However, at the last minute, they decide to give it to Peter (without telling anyone), as he would be less obvious. Peter, the scared rat he is, gives the location up to Voldemort. Sirius hears of this and goes after him, but it's too late. And to escape, Peter cuts off a finger, blows up a few muggles, and escapes, leaving Sirius to take the blame. None of this is explained in the film, leaving somewhat of a plot hole. However, it also leaves a few things unexplained for later movies. The Fidelius Charm isn't explained here, so it can't be used later without much confusion (such as Grimmauld Place, where they had to change its introduction up a bit).

-Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. I mentioned the lack of explanation for the Marauder's Map earlier, but here's a big issue that stems from it. Due to this lack of explanation, Harry should never know that Moony is Lupin, Wormtail is Peter, Padfoot is Sirius, and Prongs is his father. This is particularly confusing come a couple lines in later movies (such as calling Peter Wormtail in any of the future movies or Harry saying "He has Padfoot" in Order of the Phoenix).

MISC.

-Remove the slapstick, particularly from the Knight Bus segment.

-Remove the silly talking shrunken heads.

-Shorten the time travel stuff... it's seriously half the movie. I always describe it as "OK, now that we've watched the last 40 minutes, let's do it all over again, but from a different perspective!" I know the time travel stuff is in the book, but it seriously does not take that much... time.

-Remove and/or shorten the seasonal interludes. I know this was done for the whole "time" theme, but they add nothing and take time away from other things.

-Make it less obvious that Scabbers is a plot device in the movie... and explain why Crookshanks is after him.

-Give Hermione back her nerdy look. This is the movie where they started sexing her up, which totally takes away from the big Yule Ball reveal in Goblet of Fire.

-Cast somebody else besides Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. He was a hippy in this one, a psycho in the next one, and almost good in Order of the Phoenix (except for one or two moments). Though I thought he was pretty dang good in Half-Blood Prince, so I'll give him that.-He's become affectionately known as RBK... that is, Random Black Kid. He apparently belongs to Gryffindor house in the same year as Harry. If they wanted to give stilted lines to a black student in Harry's year, just give it to Dean Thomas. He's horribly underused in the films as it is.

So, Nick, if the critically panned Chamber of Secrets or your personally panned Prisoner of Azkaban aren't what you think are the worst film of the series, what is? Well, dear reader... this one. It does a couple things right, and even one thing amazingly well (the Graveyard scene), but everything else is just so... rushed. It's the first "big" book of the series. They also were tempted to split it into 2 films. But Alfonso Cuaron talked them out of doing it, despite him not coming on to direct the installment. It probably would have been a good idea.

CONTINUITY

-Wormtail? Why are you calling Peter Pettigrew Wormtail? Oh, that's right. You didn't explain that in the last movie, and you're not bothering to do it in this one, either. So let's just toss it in and see if any non-book readers get confused.

NOTABLE EXCLUDED CHARACTERS

-Fleur Delacour... what? She might as well have been. OK, fine... ignore this one.

-Bertha Jorkins. There's an entire subplot about a Ministry official named Bertha Jorkins that goes missing, though they think she just got lost because she's really ditsy. Her characters' entire purpose was how Wormtail got Voldemort at least partially alive and into his little weirdo baby form.

-Ludo Bagman. There's a red herring subplot involving Ludo Bagman and the Weasley twins. You're meant to think it was Ludo who put Harry's name in the Goblet, but it just turns out Fred and George won a gamble against Ludo and he paid them in fake money, but he wouldn't meet with them to pay up.

-Dobby and Winky. Yup... believe it or not, Dobby comes back after the second book (and prior to the 7th). He reappears in Goblet of Fire working in the kitchens of Hogwarts as a free elf. Winky is a house elf that belongs to the Crouch family at the beginning, but they free her (much to her chagrin), and she's put up in the kitchens, as well. Her distress (and drunkenness) sets off Hermione to start up one of the more annoying subplots of the book series--S.P.E.W., the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. But most of Dobby's point in the book was handed off to Neville (who also took this position in the next film, as well).

-Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix is first introduced in the Pensieve scene. In the movie, we just get Karkaroff. In the book, we get a few different prisoners, including Bellatrix, who is the one to admit to torturing Neville's parents along with Barty Crouch Jr.

-Bill Weasley. He has a short scene as a judge during the first task, but it's an important scene due to Fleur and, well... what you'll see in the seventh film.

-Peeves. He has a good suspense scene in this one, but as he was never introduced, he couldn't be in it.

-The Dursleys. Yup, for the first time in the series, Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley were cut from the films. This was a funny one, too, as the Weasley's come to pick up Harry so he can stay at their place for the rest of the summer. Well, they come via Floo Powder, but after the letter fiasco from the first book, the Dursleys sealed up their fireplace. After literally breaking into their living room, the Weasleys totally freak out the Dursleys... not to mention Fred and George slip Dudley some Ton-Tongue Toffee, which makes his tongue grow to an obscene size.

PLOT

-There's so much that it buggered up that it's hard to remember everything. Let's start with Rita Skeeter's shortened role. There was a huge subplot with Rita and how she was getting a lot of information for her column. As it turns out, she was an unregistered animagus spying on them as a beetle. Hermione uses this as blackmail later, but we'll get to that.

-Why was so much time spent on the Yule Ball? That was one mere chapter in the book, and it takes up a huge chunk of the movie.

-They could have easily cut down the dragon challenge. There would be no way they wouldn't enchant the chain so that it can't break. There would be no way they would let a dangerous dragon chase Harry Potter of all people across the school where they can't keep an eye on him or protect him, especially since he's not even supposed to be involved. It makes no sense on any level.

-They really changed up the maze challenge. The book had sphinxes and giant spiders and all sorts of nasty things.

-Speaking of the maze, Krum had the imperious curse on him. The point of said curse is that nobody can tell you are cursed and they can make you do whatever they want. So why did they have to fog up his eyes? That takes away the point.

-The death of Crouch Sr. was so boring as compared to the book. In the book, his body goes missing and you find out later that he was killed and then transfigured into a bone so they couldn't find him as easily. But I guess they needed immediate reactions.

-In the book, Crouch Jr. gets the Dementor's Kiss and loses his soul. In the movie, he's just sent back to Azkaban. During the Azkaban breakout later on, that would probably put Crouch Jr. up there as Voldemort's right-hand man due to his success. Yet, he's never heard of again. I smell a plot hole!

-What the hell, Mike Newell? No Quidditch World Cup? Not even a few glimpses of it? Pfft... fine then.

SETTING UP FOR LATER

-Priori Incantatem. I could forgive a lot of this movie had they not screwed this up. Visually, it looks wonderful and the scene in the graveyard works great. However, Dumbledore doesn't explain WTF happened... at least in the movie. And this is hugely important for the final book. Voldemort and Harry's wands share the same core--a phoenix feather from the same phoenix (Fawkes). They're brother wands, which means they can't fight against each other. When they try, Priori Incantatem happens, where the "beams" crash and whatnot, and figments of previous spells show themselves in reverse order. They almost definitely need to have this explained in Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Update: They pretty much do... not referencing Priori Incantatem, but referencing how they can't use their wands against each other).

-Hermione blackmailing Rita. Because the animagus thing is never visited, neither is Hermione holding it over Rita's head. Because this happens, the most important news article in the whole series can't be written in the next film.

-Where's the prize money? Since Harry didn't get any prize money for winning the tournament in the movie, he couldn't give it to the Weasley twins. Therefore, they have no money to start making Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products, nor any money to start up the store by the sixth film.

MISC.

-What's with the random, no-point-to-it scene of Karkaroff going into the Great Hall just to check on the Goblet? It's obviously a red herring, but once you take that factor out, there's no real reason for him to be doing that to begin with.

-Could they have made it any more obvious that Crouch Jr. was disguised as Moody with the whole tongue thing? What the hell was that all about?

-Speaking of Moody, what's with the strap? Moody has no strap for his eye!

-Completely random, but it's always bugged me that at the end of the Malfoy, The Amazing Bouncing Ferret scene, Moody's walking stick goes from crooked to straight between frames.

-Nigel. Oh, Nigel, Nigel, Nigel... couldn't they have just re-casted Colin Creevey? Or introduced him as Dennis, Colin's little brother? Oh well... I guess Nigel has just become a brand new character for the films.

-This was the book where Harry really began to connect with Sirius. In the movie, Sirius has one (really poorly done) scene, and that's it. That kind of leaves it up to the next film to set up their relationship.

Oh, the introduction of David Yates. Yates seems to split people. Some think he's ruined the Potter films. I think they're crazy. I personally think Yates has made the best Potter films of the bunch. In fact, he managed to turn the longest, clunkiest book of the series into the shortest film, and tell it pretty straightforwardly at that. But does it have issues? Sure... let's get into them.

CONTINUITY

-I actually think one of Yates' strengths is his brilliant eye for continuity. He's brought back things from every film, from the clocks and lock-down mechanisms in Prisoner of Azkaban to the moving staircases in the first two films and more. That being said, there are a couple things I want to bring up. First, it would be animalizing the centaurs. They're very bestial in this film, whereas Firenze wasn't as much so in the first film.

-Second, during the Dumbledore/Voldemort fight, the two wizards have a Prior Incantatem moment. This is impossible. The only way this could happen is if Dumbledore had picked up Harry's wand. For continuity purposes, this makes no sense.

NOTABLE EXCLUDED CHARACTERS

-Frank and Alice Longbottom. There is an amazing scene in the book that takes place at St. Mungo's Hospital where Harry goes to visit Mr. Weasley after his attack. While he's there, he meets Neville, who is there visiting his parents, who are completely mentally destroyed. Neville still gets to explain this to Harry in a scene in the film, but it's not done nearly as heart-wrenching as in the book (all those gum wrappers...).

-Gilderoy Lockhart. Yup, that's right. Lockhart does make another appearance. He's at St. Mungo's while Harry is visiting with the Weasleys. It's a very funny moment right before the heartbreak of Neville's parents.

-Marietta Edgecomb. In the book, Marietta is the snitch, not Cho. She's Cho's friend, but she doesn't agree with Harry or his methods, finally giving in to Umbridge. She ends up having a bad curse placed on her by Hermione due to her breaking the rules of Dumbledore's Army. In the film, Cho is made slightly more sympathetic by having us see it done through Veritaserum.

-Aberforth Dumbledore. Aberforth is technically in the film, but they weren't completely aware it was Aberforth at the time. He's given almost nothing to do but chase a goat out of the room. Of course, his role was recasted for the final film, as it is slightly more substantial.

-Zacharias Smith. I think he was also kind of in the film, but under a different name. He's a total twerp and member of Hufflepuff. He's pretty anti-Harry, but he's a part of Dumbledore's Army.

-Peeves. I would have liked to see Peeves if just for this movie. During the Weasley twin escape, they tell Peeves--who has never listened to anybody ever--to "Give her hell from us." And he solutes them and does so. It's an epic moment that had to be lost thanks to the first film.

-Rita Skeeter. I mentioned her subplot here in the previous film. Hermione blackmails her into writing an article about Harry's side of the story (i.e. Voldemort's return), and they publish it in Luna's father's newspaper, the Quibbler. Of course, Umbridge has it banned from school, which only makes it skyrocket in popularity.

-Dobby. Again, he's in the book helping out Harry from time to time.

-Firenze. After Trelawney is fired, Firenze is hired on to take her position as a permanent sub, basically. He also continues this role in the next book, which causes some conflict between the two characters, having two teachers teaching the same subject and splitting the classes.

PLOT

-The book's Ministry invasion was over 200 pages long and included multiple rooms and some really crazy stuff. The movie's Ministry invasion was... not. They went straight to the Hall of Prophecy and then to the Veil Room. It was already the shortest movie. They could have spent a good amount of time on this climax.

-The office scene at the end of the film is drastically different from the book. It doesn't bother me too much, except for one thing: the prophecy. It's not explained almost at all. And to top it off, they weren't even given the full prophecy. They actually cut out the most important part of the prophecy, the part that would have let Voldemort know who to go after. Without that part of the prophecy, Voldemort has absolutely no reason to know it could be about Harry (and actually, in the books, it could also be about Neville... which was totally removed from the movie, though I can understand why, I suppose). And none of this is explained. All we get is the "one of you must die" and "I love you, Harry."

SETTING UP FOR LATER

-There is actually a Horcrux clue in the book, but it's in a throw-away line during a chapter about cleaning, which... of course... was completely cut from the film.

MISC.

-The reveal of Grimmauld Place is kinda lame, but they couldn't do it totally right due to no Fidelius Charm introduction in the third film.

-Speaking of Grimmauld Place, Sirius' mother's portrait was really toned down to almost nothing in the film, huh? Only a book fan would have even caught anything about it in the film.

-Tonks is given almost nothing to do... poor Tonks.

-Kreacher seems like a throw-away character at this point, again given nothing to do.

-The whole subplot surrounding Percy and his family has been completely dropped, much like the character in general, really. I guess there will be no redemption moment in the final film.

This is actually my favorite of the films thus far, but that won't stop me from finding something wrong with it.

CONTINUITY

-I actually can't think of anything wrong with the continuity in this film. It actually fixes previous continuity errors. For instance, Flitwick, who only seemed to be a Charms professor in the first two films and a choir teacher in the rest... is once again referenced as a Charms professor, while doing choir on the side.

NOTABLE EXCLUDED CHARACTERS

-Madam Rosmerta. She had a part in Draco's plan that actually helps tie together a few very minor plot holes left by the film.

-The Gaunts. This is probably the biggest cut of the film. The Gaunts is a pensieve scene where we get to see Voldemort's parents and grandparents, as well as a couple other things.

-Hepzibah Smith. This was another marginal cut in the film for a pensieve scene that ties into another category, so I'll get to it later.

-Professor Trelawney. There's a pretty major scene where we find out how Trelawney was first hired, that she was the one who made Harry's Prophecy, and that Snape was the one that had overheard it and gone to Voldemort with the first half of the prophecy (which is all he had heard). Granted, as they cut out the bulk of the prophecy, it makes it kinda clunky as to what he could have heard to begin with.

-Firenze. I already mentioned why during the previous film's section.

-Dobby and Kreacher. The two house elves appear to help Harry keep track of Draco, as Harry becomes insanely obsessive about Draco's whereabouts and plotting throughout the book.

-The Dursleys. Yup, for the second time in the series, Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley Dursley are absent from the film. And how sad, as this was a funny one. Dumbledore shows up at their house and totally messes with them (mentally and physically). He also has Kreacher appear to see if Grimmauld Place (and Kreacher) belong to Harry or Bellatrix.

PLOT

-So... the Weasley's house burned down, huh? I can see why they added this scene in the film. It was a much-needed action sequence in an otherwise non-action film. Still, I've never decided how much I actually like its inclusion. Mostly, I'm not overly bugged by it.

-A ton of memory sequences were cut. The book has a handful of them. The movie only has about 2 or 3 main ones. I actually kinda miss the memories, as they give us Voldemort's history. And not only that, but they give us insight into the Horcruxes.

SETTING UP FOR LATER

-Due to the cutting and/or trimming of certain memory sequences, the majority of the Horcrux clues went missing. Hepzibah Smith's scene introduces us to one of the possible Horcruxes, as well as the possibility of what the others could be--objects belonging to Hogwarts Founders. What the "Young Tom Riddle" sequence doesn't set up is that Voldemort collects trophies from his most important victims. He sees value in prominent victory. And, like Harry, since Hogwarts was a major part of his life changing and it felt like home, it would be most logical that he'd find objects that belonged to its founders to use as Horcruxes. Of course, Slytherin's locket was introduced, though not as belonging to Slytherin. The ring is introduced, as well, but without the Gaunt sequence, we don't know its significance, either. We also know of his diary, but we don't learn that it was his first thanks to the death of a girl named Myrtle (to later become Moaning Myrtle). In other words, Harry is left to be even more in the dark in the films than he was in the books.

MISC.

-The book doesn't focus on the Half-Blood Prince subplot much, either, though Hermione was more focused on trying to figure out who it was. In the movie, there's almost no curiosity of who it could be. I think if this were played up a bit more, the reveal at the end would have been stronger. There is no explanation in the film why Snape called himself the Half-Blood Prince, as Hermione does explain in the book. Overall, however, there's no real point to that whole subplot besides discovering Snape is a half-blood, so it didn't really bug me that much. It's just slightly strange in the film to go from little focus to "I am the Half-Blood Prince."

-Snape could have reacted stronger to Harry's "COWARD!" That's a huge moment in the book, and the fury from Snape at being called a coward is intense. The movie had almost no reaction to it.

-The movie didn't set up the Inferi... at all, really. The book has a few moments (including a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson from Snape) about them, foreshadowing the end of the film.

-Speaking of DADA, the book only has one lesson from Snape in it, but the movie could have at least included it.

FINAL NOTES

I'm sure I missed a ton in this. I know for a fact there were one or two things I wanted to mention in here somewhere, but I can't remember what they were. If you have anything else you'd like to make note of, please leave a comment!

Years 1&2-Agree mostly, though I really am glad Peeves was chopped from the movies. He was fun to read, but I think he would've become tedious to endure on film.

Year 3-Aside from the lack of explanation behind the map, I love this one. As for lack of mention about James saving Snape, I think if they stick to telling Snape's story in the second half of DH, all will be fine. Snape really hated Harry b/c he saw Harry as the reason for Lily's death. That coupled with Snape's memories of James is enough for the non-reader to understand the hate. I was disappointed in the cutting of the quidditch cup, but I get it. Cedric was also (sorta) introduced in this book too during that first match.

Year 4-To this day, I still don't understand the hate for GoF. I liked the Yule Ball scene. Wizards having prom! They're not so different from us muggles after all. In a series full kids constantly battling evil, it's nice to see them act like kids once in a while. Barty Jr. wasn't necessarily sent back to Azkaban; Dumbledore simply stated in the film to alert the dementors because they're missing a prisoner. They may have easily come to Hogwarts and performed the kiss. The point of this book was to hold the TriWizard Tournament so Voldy could return to form, which is totally covered in the film. Everything else is really just extra an doesn't move the plot forward.

Year 5-I'm actually glad OotP isn't longer. Umbridge really gets under my skin, and I think they did a fair job showing that. More of it would've been tedious. Same goes for the Ministry. I don't think we needed to see Ron being attacked by brains or any of the other miscellaneous rooms. It's fascinating to read, but I doubt it would transfer to screen as smoothly without being condsidered expendable.

Year 6-Love this movie except Bonnie and Daniel's chemistry, the burning of the Burrow (which showed no damage in DH) and lack of Voldy's history via memories.

Films 1 and 2: The main reason I wanted Peeves was for the "Give her hell from us" line in OOTP.

Film 3: Yeah, well... I'll always have a special little place... somewhere... for this one.

Film 4: I completely agree that the movie served its purpose and whatnot. However, this movie bothered me on a directing level more than anything. I don't mind the material or anything. But he had the wrong vision for the characters and how they should act, the film felt choppy and rushed, and while I like the Yule Ball and what it shows us, too much time was spent on it in the film.

Year 5: Had Dumbledore not had that one outburst, and then the Prophecy gotten more explanation (plus given the actual entire thing), I would have been satisfied.

Year 6: Indeed, though the Burrow burning never bothered me, honestly. Plus, its being fixed is simple with magic. It wasn't cursed, just burned. Umbridge destroyed the entrance to the Room of Requirement in OOTP, but it was back to normal in HBP--easy magic fix.